


Dress For Success

by DesertScribe



Category: Corpse Bride (2005), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Genre: Crossover, Friendship, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-18 01:10:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11280609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertScribe/pseuds/DesertScribe
Summary: A mysterious swarm of butterflies has just arrived in Halloween Town.  Sally investigates and makes a friend.





	Dress For Success

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamiflame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/gifts).



It was a beautiful night.

It was also the slow season for sewing. The post-Halloween demand for mending any damage incurred during the big night had died down, and it would be months before most residents of Halloween Town decided on what they wanted to wear for the next one. That left only the usual day-to-day tailoring and seamstress work plus occasionally producing new items to keep the stock of readymade garments and accessories up to date, all of which Sally Skellington could easily complete with plenty of time to spare. However, that did not mean that Sally spent the rest of her work-nights just sitting around doing nothing. There were always new styles to create and old looks to update so as to keep her customers coming back time and time again, and more than just being a practical matter of running a business, it was fun.

Sally loved sketching by moonlight, which was why she was perched on the broad sill of an open window long after midnight when the first butterfly flew past her and into the room behind her. She turned to follow its path of flight and found it fluttering against the glass of the wrought copper lantern (shaped like a Jack-o-lantern, of course) that she had left lit on her studio worktable. The candlelight revealed the simple but elegant patterns on the insect's wings, and Sally hurried to copy them into the margins of her current sketch to remember for later, because she was certain she could work them into one of her future clothing designs once she found the right place to use them. She completed the final stroke just in time before the butterfly abandoned the lantern and fluttered out through the window, just as it had entered.

Sally watched it go. She had never seen one of that particular variety before. Butterflies were not unheard of in Halloweentown, at least not these days now that Jack had established friendly trade with all of the other holiday realms, but they were still unusual. Moths were more common due to being slightly more in tune with the town's theme of darkness and supernatural mystery, but even they were rare in this land of perpetual October where the night winds liked to carry tastes of winter when the mood suited them. Maybe the butterfly was part of the entourage of a visiting dignitary from one of the summer holidays, or maybe it just wanted to do a little sightseeing on its own. Either way, there was no reason why it could not be in town if it wanted to be, even if it was putting itself at risk of catching a chill in the process.

Sally was about to shrug off the minor oddity of the occurrence and return to her sketching when she caught more movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked out over the town and saw more of the butterflies. They were everywhere, flitting here and there, landing on rooftops and fluttering against windowpanes and filling the night with small dancing shadows and soft shades of blue, more like a freak weather pattern than a flock or a swarm. It was beautiful. Sally set aside she sketchbook and grabbed her camera (a grudging wedding present from Dr. Finkelstein) and then dashed out of her studio, down the stairs, through her ground floor main workroom, through the storefront of her designer clothing boutique, and out onto the street.

More than half of the residents of Halloween Town were nocturnal, but most of them tended to get very focused on their jobs while working, so no one else seemed to have noticed the thousands of little blue visitors yet, and Sally and the butterflies had the streets to themselves. The butterflies engulfed Sally in a cloud of blue, and she wondered where they were all coming from. She wandered down the street until she came to the town square, where the buildings blocked less of the moonlight. Some of the butterflies followed her and joined the ones that were waiting in the square. It was a lovely scene, one worth preserving on film. Sally raised her camera to her eye, adjusted the focus and the settings to her liking, and then pressed the shutter button.

The blacklight flash went off with a "POP!" like it always did, and for the tiniest fraction of a second Sally thought she saw the pale pink circle on each butterfly wing light up with a glowing skull. However, there was no time for her to think about that, because in the exact same instant, seemingly against their will, almost as if they were being drawn together by an overwhelming gravitational force, the butterflies all converged on the point where they had been most densely clustered together, where they coalesced into a woman who fell out of the air and into the fountain with a startled, "Eek!" and a splash.

The woman immediately vanished under the green water, and then all was quiet aside from the gently splashing of the fountain itself. Sally rushed forward and peered into the water, because anyone who had spent any time at all in Halloween Town knew that this fountain was deeper than it looked. Not even a shadow swirled in its murky depths. Even the wind seemed to be waiting to see what would happen. Then the woman surged upward with only mild flailing, breaking the surface with a muffled but indignant, "Ack!" and the distinct lack of gasping for air unique to people who had no need to breathe.

"Oh," Sally said, offering her hand to help the woman out of the fountain, "oh, I'm so sorry! I had no idea that would happen, really, I didn't."

"No, it's fine," the woman said, accepting Sally's help. "I wasn't expecting that to happen either, but it's fine." The woman flipped dark blue hair and what appeared to be a bridal veil out of her face and then looked down at her dripping hands, one skeletal and one flesh, and said, "Why is this water sticky and smell like lime candy?"

"The children like to throw their leftover lollipops in there after Halloween," Sally said. She bent down to help the woman wring out her skirts as she continued, "The mayor tried to stop them at first, but it turned things such a lovely color that the town council voted to let them keep doing it, and it became something of a tradition." Sally looked mournfully at the fabric between her fingers. "Unfortunately, all that sugar and dye means this dress is ruined, and it looks like it was such nice silk, too. Once again, I am so very, very sorry."

"Don't worry about it, please," the woman said with a sigh, and now it was her turn to offer a hand and help Sally up to her feet. "It was ruined long before tonight."

From the woman's tone of voice, Sally could guess that that single sentence held a long and sad story within it, but she did not wish to pry into the affairs of a stranger she had just met, especially not one who was now glancing around her and looking so lost and alone, so instead she offered her warmest, most welcoming smile and said, "I still feel responsible for making both you and it all wet and sticky. Please, come back to my shop with me, and I'll find you something new to wear, free of charge, to make up for it. My name is Sally, by the way."

The woman gave a small smile of her own, cautious but genuine, as she said, "I'm Emily."

"Well, Emily, please allow me to be the first person to welcome you to Halloween Town."

"Thank you, Sally." They shook hands in greeting.

Just then, the wind decided to make itself known again, swirling dry leaves around the two women and tugging at Emily's sodden dress and hair.

"I think the wind is welcoming you, too," Sally said.

The wind made the leaves spin in a couple of tight loop-de-loops as if nodding, 'yes,' and then blasted hard against them in the direction of Sally's shop.

"I don't know how things are where you come from," Sally said apologetically, digging her heels into the ground to help her stay in place while Emily did the same, "but around here the wind likes to make its opinions known, so make sure not to let it push you around too much. Right now it might have a point, though. Let's get you back to my shop where you can get cleaned up and out of those wet things. The official tour of the town can wait until later."

"Yes, I think you're right," Emily said, holding her veil in place with one hand and swatting windblown leaves out of the air with the other, only to leave herself open to letting the wind slap her in the face with her own wet hair.

"That's enough!" Sally told the wind sharply in her best Pumpkin Queen voice, and it quickly dropped down to a gentle breeze and went back to its previous business of sweeping the fallen leaves off of the streets and into piles nestled in corners and alleyways, leaving Sally free to collect her camera from the edge of the fountain and lead Emily to the boutique.

Though Emily had initially seemed reluctant at the idea of taking anything that she did not feel like she deserved, her eyes lit up at the many different dresses on display in the shop. She looked as if only the knowledge of her still-sticky state kept her from running around and touching them all. "These are beautiful," she whispered with awe, her fingers unconsciously drifting towards the elaborately curling collar of a blood red gown. "I know spiders who would be jealous of this stitch-work, and I'm talking about proud spiders, not the type to just fling ratty cobwebs around willy-nilly in any available corner."

"Thank you, I make them all myself," Sally said as she gathered her scissors, pins, tape measure, and chalk pencil from their storage basket in an unobtrusive corner.

In the end, Emily ended up choosing one of the plainer black dresses available, of a style currently favored by the local witches. Sally was sure it would look good on the dead woman, but she was not sure if she chose it due to its simplicity in its own right or because it was very much the opposite of her ruined wedding dress. It was not Sally's place to pry though, so she took some quick measurements and then directed Emily towards the upstairs shower with a stack of towels, a dressing gown, clean underclothes, and instructions to take as long as she needed. By the time Emily emerged, Sally had finished the necessary alterations to the dress, and all that remained to do was to check the fit and adjust accordingly. They talked as Sally worked, and soon it was as if they had known each other for years.

"--And then he ran face first into a tree! I was a little offended at the time, but in hindsight it really is rather funny," Emily said, giggling at the memory before taking a sip of her elderberry and wormwood wine.

Sally giggled along with her. "That is priceless," she said. Her work on the dress was long since finished, and Emily wore it well, but Jack was away on business, so there was no reason to rush home, and sleep was more of an optional pastime than a requirement for either of them, so they might as well enjoy their newfound friendship for a little while longer before the outside world intruded to start making demands on either of their time. Therefore, they had decided to spend the wee hours of the morning as they did, drinking and chatting while they lounged on the comfortable furniture arranged for just such a purpose in an out of the way corner of Sally's main workroom. A sudden thought struck Sally as she took a sip of her own wine. "Have you considered joining the fright competitions next Halloween?" she asked. "I had never considered using fear of commitment to score points, but it sounds like if you played it right you could win top prize!"

"Next year?" Emily said, suddenly uncertain. "Maybe? I mean, it sounds like it fun, but arriving here was kind of an accident, and I'm still not sure if I should stay."

"Please do!" Sally said, even as she wondered if maybe she was being selfish in this request. She loved Jack with all her heart and knew that he loved her just as strongly, but sometimes a person needed a dear friend who was not also their lover. Sally had many friends and acquaintances around town, but they all tended to see her either as Jack's Wife or the Doctor's Rebellious Ragdoll first and foremost. It was so nice to finally meet someone who simply thought of Sally as _Sally_ while anything else she might be came second, especially when that someone had as much humor and intelligence as Emily showed when she relaxed enough to open up. And Emily seemed like maybe she needed a chance to just be Emily instead of whoever she had been before. All Sally needed to do was convince Emily of that fact.

"I already know you would fit right in here," Sally cajoled, "and there are plenty of jobs that could benefit from having someone like you. If we looked, I'm sure we could find something you would enjoy doing. This town has lots of opportunities for the musically inclined with a flair for the dramatic."

"Maybe," Emily said again, more wistful than doubtful this time. "Everything you've told me about this place does make it sound more, um, 'livable' than the Underworld, if you'll excuse the expression, but when I left Victor behind I thought I would just--"

The sudden crowing of the local rooster skeleton cut off whatever it was that Emily had been about to say.

"Oh no," Emily gasped, bolting to her feet, her eyes wide with fear. She looked like she wanted to run but did not know where to go. Her eyes kept darting around, looking for a path of escape, but every few moments they were drawn back to staring out the window at the brightening sky like a compass needle finding north.

"What's the matter?" Sally asked.

"I'm dead!" Emily said quietly, sounding too frightened to speak above a whisper.

"So?" Sally did not point out that it was obvious from the beginning that Emily was dead, because that seemed rude. "Most of the people in the town are dead." The only reason why Sally herself did not count as one of the dead was because she technically fell into the category of 'never really alive to begin with,' but that did not mean that she could not still have a life.

"I'm dead, and I thought this was another world of eternal night, but now it's _dawn_ ," Emily said. "The dead can't roam the world during daylight hours. It's just _wrong_!" She began to shake. She wrapped the arms tightly around herself but could not make the shaking stop. "No, it's more than just wrong; it's the most wrong thing that could ever be! Everyone in the Underworld knows that."

"It's not wrong here," Sally said. She picked up a black and orange quilt that had been draped across the back of a chair and wrapped it comfortingly around Emily's shoulders.

"But how?"

"This is Halloween Town, Emily" Sally said. To a longtime resident, that might have explained everything, but Emily really was still new, no matter how well it felt like she belonged here, so Sally elaborated. "The town exists in a liminal state perpendicular to ordinary reality, so supernatural beings get special dispensation to walk by daylight if they so choose," Sally quoted from memory. There were certain lessons that all young residents of Halloween Town were required to learn before their education could be considered to be complete, and this was one of them. Then Sally added, "It's a good thing, too. If the dead couldn't go out during the day, then we'd only be able to get half as much done around here. C'mon, let me show you." She led Emily upstairs to her design studio and the large window where she had been sitting when Emily's butterflies had first arrived. "See?" she said, gesturing to the view before them.

From up here, they could see a large part of the town, and in that town, under the rapidly brightening sky, the previously empty streets were bustling with activity. The nocturnal folks were heading home for the day, while the diurnal folks readied themselves for work, and the crepuscular folk did a little bit of both. Mummies, and vampires, and zombies, and ghosts, and swamp creatures, and closet monsters, and shadow dragons, and gargoyles, and all sorts of other beings intermingled with each other, happily greeting their neighbors and catching up on gossip. The only concessions that any of them made to the daylight were a few parasols here and a few pairs of sunglasses there, and even those seemed more like affectations than necessities.

The rooster skeleton crowed again, and the edge of the sun's disc peeked above the horizon, bathing the rooftops and Sally and Emily in warm autumn light. Emily instinctively flinched away and brought up a hand to shield her eyes. When nothing happened to her, no bursting into flames or crumbling to ash or simply fading out of existence, Emily tentatively turned her face back toward the window and peeked between her finger bones at the rising sun.

"Oh," Emily said. "Oh, my."

Sally watched as Emily's expression shifted from fear, to hope, to wonder, to joy, and she was not certain, but she thought she could pinpoint the exact moment that Emily decided she was going to stay in Halloween Town, because it was like a weight suddenly came off her shoulders to be replaced with contentment. It was the look of someone who had finally found their home.

"Is it always this wonderful here?" Emily asked as she stepped closer to the window and spread her arms so as to get as much sunlight on her as possible.

"Sometimes it's like this," Sally said. "Sometimes there are raging thunderstorms like the sky is trying to eat the ground. Sometimes it's so dry that it's like the whole world is waiting to catch on fire. Sometimes it's summer in the morning and winter at night, and sometimes it's the other way around," she said, though even that description fell short. She smiled at the futility of trying to summarize the wonders of the magical place they lived in. "It's all wonderful in its own way," she concluded, because it really was.

Down in the street, activity was reaching the peak of the morning rush. Somewhere, two creatures had started singing in counterpoint to each other, one bragging about brewing the scariest coffee in town while the other touted the joys of baking cupcakes that bit back. A flock of crows flew past the window, followed by a giant turkey that had emigrated from Thanksgiving Town and was doing its best to become a terror bird. Soon, Sally would need to go downstairs and open up the shop for its daylight business hours, but for now she was content to sit and watch her new friend let her blue skin glow under the first sunlight to touch it in who knows how many years.

With a smile, Sally picked up her discarded sketchpad and settled into a chair. She looked between Emily and the hurried sketch of butterfly wings she had done the night before. Then she turned to a new page in the book and began a new sketch. Sally smiled to herself as her pencil danced across the paper. Judging by the look of bliss on Emily's face as she stood in the light, it was only a matter of time before she was going to want a sundress, so it was best to start the design now. She already had an idea for the motif to use.

Outside, it was the beginning of a beautiful day. Inside, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

**The End**


End file.
